Okay, I no longer hate Kobe. It's official. He was truly his Chinese nickname "the little flying warrior." He was THE playmaker or the killer shooter for every successful play in the end.

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It was pretty telling that while everybody was panicking, he took over. Best player in the world, can't argue it. That was seriously one of the best games I've ever seen; makes the fact that i have to be up in 5 hours a little less painful LOL

And POR is going to be stacked next year. Rudy Fernandez is sick.

Gotta wonder what would have happened if Calderon hadn't been injured, and they didn't have to rely on 17-year old Ricky Rubio for most of the game . . .

With the NBA theme song playing before and after the game, the USA held on to a 118-107 victory over Spain. Even David Stern looked nervous in the stands as the game was closer than the so called experts thought it would be.

Spain played it tough as the USA had plenty of defensive lapses. The score was 104-99 with less than 4 minutes left before Kobe took over as he was responsible for 15 points via pts and assists in the last 8 mins. He didn't have his best game, throwing up ill advised threes, but he did hit a key one with less than 2 mins left that sealed the game via a 4 point play.

Wade scored 23 in the first half, and I would say that he is back despite his penchant for still sliding all over the floor.

Everyone hi-fived or slapped hands with Doug Collins after the victory as some dedicated the game to his team's 72 Olympic stolen loss.

Funny in the first half Doug had a [STRIKE]love[/STRIKE] Basketball Jones for Tay as he praised him for about 10 minutes whether he was on the bench or on the floor. At least Tay got some minutes....It was Micheal Redd's birthday and he only got Darko PT in this one getting inserted in the last 12 seconds with Carlos Boozer who possibly could have provided some inside post scoring when Spain's zone was forcing the USA to throw up bricks...Neither took off their warmups jackets until the end of the game.

Speaking of Darko, funny how he was the only one of the first five players selected in 2003 who didn't get a gold medal tonight....I was out of the country/of touch the last week, but did he play for the Serbia team? Or did their team qualify for the Olympics? \ Back to the ESpain,...they had couple of guys who look NBA ready besides Pau Gasoft. Even his brother Marc showed some moves that Darko lacked. Rudy Fernandez looked great out there continually beating everyone who tried to guard him off the dribble and to the hoop. He will look good in Portland next year..

The 17 year old Rudy Rubio looked good out there too. Somebody will draft him next year even if he doesn't come to the NBA for 5 years....

I just watched the gold medal game on DVR. Pretty painful most of the way, that was by far the worst defensive performance by the US in this tournament. Lousy help defense, getting beat 1-on-1, not getting boards, the whole works. Good thing they hit their 3s in the first half and then again down the stretch. Wade was awesome in the first half, and Kobe sure was clutch when it really counted. Also nice for us Pistons fans that Tay gave them a good lift off the bench in the first half when Kobe and LeBron were in foul trouble.

Doug Collins had said in previous games that he told the guys "if winning the gold is as important to you as it is to the other teams, you'll win." Turned out he was right, as they were all celebrating as if they had just won the NBA title. Colangelo's plan to keep them playing together for 3 summers in a row might have helped as much in that respect as it did in getting them comfortable with each other on the floor; their desire to win on an individual level was really able to blossom into an effective desire to win as a team.

So, congrats to the players, Coach K and his staff, and Colangelo for making it all happen. Even though the final game was much more of a struggle than I hoped it would be, it's great to see it all coming together for them.

How about Lisa Leslie being interviewed during the first half with all 4 Olympics' worth of gold medal bling hanging on her neck!

So, congrats to the players, Coach K and his staff, and Colangelo for making it all happen. Even though the final game was much more of a struggle than I hoped it would be, it's great to see it all coming together for them.

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Well said D4E. Coach K was the right guy for the job. Same with Colangelo. It was a nice gesture for the team to put all their gold medals around Colangelo's neck. He had the right vision.

My only complaint with Coach K was his under-utilization of Boozer. You'd think Boozer was some scrub with only a few years in the league. I guess since he played at Duke, Coach K felt he had a strong enough relationship with him that it wouldn't suffer if he didn't play much.

The guys showed a lot of pride and that was the key. When the going got rough, they rose to the occasion.

Not my favorite moment of the Olympics though. I'm going with the U.S. women winning the 4x400 relay with Sanya Richards coming from behind to win as the anchor. That was SWEEEEEEEEEEETTTT!

1) Shawn Johnson, gracious and smiling her way through the disappointments to finally be awarded a well-deserved gold

2) Jason Lezak coming from behind in the 4x100 freestyle

3) the 4x400 relay

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Those are all good ones, det. Shawn Johnson was my favorite athlete of the Games. The media had pretty much annointed Liukin the darling of the Games after her all-around gold, but Johnson still had a lot of fight left. Good stuff. Not a hint of smugness from the Johnson camp.

don't seem to think you're there to watch them and don't make not getting their feelings hurt priority # 1

Don't get intimidated by the crowd and start making calls based on that

Don't take a year + to "learn a new players game" and indiscriminately call fouls on them

I thought Tay looked really good. He was very aggressive and concise. Doug Collins had me feeling bad about my 1000+ posts saying to get rid of him.

LeBron is the best player in the world. I actually find it pretty easy to root or him. Kobe did play well at the end, but I thought he was garbage for the most part. He might be a more overrated defender than Tay. 1001.

Not my favorite moment (because of the tragedy of it) but worth mentioning: U.S. men's volleyball team winning gold after the coach's father-in-law was stabbed in Beijing. Talk about your highs and lows.

Not my favorite moment (because of the tragedy of it) but worth mentioning: U.S. men's volleyball team winning gold after the coach's father-in-law was stabbed in Beijing. Talk about your highs and lows.

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Absolutely.

Sorta OT cuz what happened in Beijing was a one-man barrage...but the 72 Munich Games were my first realization of terrorism. The late Jim McKay brought it all home to me as eloquently as anyone could.

In the 4x400, it was amazing to watch the Russian pass the american during one of the earlier legs, only to have our anchor steal victory from the jaws of [STRIKE]FLIP[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]Dumars[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]Sheed[/STRIKE] defeat.

don't seem to think you're there to watch them and don't make not getting their feelings hurt priority # 1

Don't get intimidated by the crowd and start making calls based on that

Don't take a year + to "learn a new players game" and indiscriminately call fouls on them

I thought Tay looked really good. He was very aggressive and concise. Doug Collins had me feeling bad about my 1000+ posts saying to get rid of him.

LeBron is the best player in the world. I actually find it pretty easy to root or him. Kobe did play well at the end, but I thought he was garbage for the most part. He might be a more overrated defender than Tay. 1001.

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I didn’t watch a single minute of Olympic hoops. To me, it was a forgone conclusion the US would win...and I don’t care to watch Lebron or Kobe anymore than I have to ;)

Congrats to Coach K! And congrats to Tay getting his gold playing limited minutes...it'll look good on his resume

In the 4x400, it was amazing to watch the Russian pass the american during one of the earlier legs, only to have our anchor steal victory from the jaws of [strike]FLIP[/strike] [strike]Dumars[/strike] [strike]Sheed[/strike] defeat.

Those are all good ones, det. Shawn Johnson was my favorite athlete of the Games. The media had pretty much annointed Liukin the darling of the Games after her all-around gold, but Johnson still had a lot of fight left. Good stuff. Not a hint of smugness from the Johnson camp.

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I concur with the Shawn John reference. She was a little soldier out there strutting and smiling her way after a couple of disappointments.

The Sanya Richards redemption of her bronze finish in the 400, the womens 4x100 team dropping the baton and her overhauling the Russian runner was one of the best moments of the games too.

don't seem to think you're there to watch them and don't make not getting their feelings hurt priority # 1

Don't get intimidated by the crowd and start making calls based on that

Don't take a year + to "learn a new players game" and indiscriminately call fouls on them

I thought Tay looked really good. He was very aggressive and concise. Doug Collins had me feeling bad about my 1000+ posts saying to get rid of him.

LeBron is the best player in the world. I actually find it pretty easy to root or him. Kobe did play well at the end, but I thought he was garbage for the most part. He might be a more overrated defender than Tay. 1001.

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You think so? I thought Kobe delivering under pressure, and Lebron fading in the 4th showed just why Kobe is the best. Without Kobe, this team loses to Spain. (Without Wade as well, but that's another story).